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Demicrusaius reviews Runelords!

STORY:

- Characters -
There is a good variety of characters and all seem different. But I have yet to see personalities emerge from most of them. The High Elf Menua actually told me to shut up, and that seemed perhaps a bit out of character.
Fenrir (who is awesome looking in battle, but kinda weird looking on the map) had a neat personality.

- Pacing -
The game starts off very quick. A short dramatic scene then you are in a small dungeon. After crossing the forest, you get a short and sweet backstory. The structure is very good and will keep your intrest.

- Dialog -
Dialog is a little dry, but gets the point across. There are many cool scenes and flashbacks, and some parts that have neat backgrounds assisting the story telling.

- Plot -
You play as prince Ethan. His older brother, who has been denied the throne, kills the king. He belongs to a secret society that is trying to bring back the 1,000 year old Runelords. The characters all have good reason for joining, and do so early on.

GAMEPLAY:

- Dungeon Design -
In the short demo, there is only two forests and both are very straight forward. There are many cleverly hidden items around towns though. Trace the edges of the maps to find special goodies.

- Mini Games -
There are easter eggs. Including finding hidden swiches on the worldmap and collecting alchemical recipes. Though, nothing that you can finish in the demo. There is a Kolbold hunting mini-game, but aside from experience points, there is no reward for completing it.

- Battles -
Spells are a bit on the weak side and attacking does much more damage. I just slashed through most of the battles. There also appears to be a cool rune system, but I don't think it has been fully implemented yet. You equip a rune, and it comes with four different spells. The system is not explained in the demo, but after several battles skills are randomly learned.


PRESENTATION:

- Consistency -
Almost everything (I think) is ripped from Final Fantasy 6. Everything is consistent and nothing looks out of place.

- Mapping -
Mapping is clever, but in the future I would like to see bigger maps with more winding paths.

- Sounds -
The decsion sound effect is a little jarring after you've been playing for a while, and some of the music might be a bit high pitched. I would say that this is the games weakest point.

Overall, I think I give Runelords: Atramentus Rising a 3.5/5

The rating is only that low because the demo is very short. But definitely worth a play. I think that as time goes on, the game will be able to holds it's own as it gets developed. I look forward to seeing this project in it's future incarnations.